Killer e-rickshaw driver was out on bail in rape case

The driver of the e-rickshaw whose reckless driving resulted in the death of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy was apprehended on Thursday. Police said the 17-year-old had earlier been caught last year in connection with six-year-old girl's gang rape and was out on bail.

The driver of the e-rickshaw whose reckless driving resulted in the death of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri on Tuesday was apprehended on Thursday.

The-grieving-relatives-of-the-two-and-a-half-year-old-boy-who-was-killed-due-to-the-recklessness-of-the-driver-of-the-e-rickshaw-HT-Photo-Arun-Sharma

Police said the 17-year-old juvenile had earlier been caught last year in connection with the gang rape of a six-year-old girl. He was out on bail.

The e-rickshaw he was driving belongs to one of his relatives. The alleged minor lives in Trilokpuri, the area where he had hit a woman near the local market in Trilokpuri’s 26-Block.

The woman, Pinki, was carrying her son in her arms when she was hit by the e-rickshaw. Pinki fell down and her son was hurled away and fell into a cauldron of boiling sugar syrup. By the time she could take out her son, he had suffered 90% burns. He died later at the Safdarjung hospital, where he was referred from Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital.

Pinki and other onlookers told police that the driver of the e-rickshaw and his friends who were seated inside were allegedly drunk.

“While everybody was busy looking at the seriously injured mother-son duo, the e-rickshaw driver and his friends fled the accident spot leaving behind the vehicle,” said an officer investigating the case.

The identity of the e-rickshaw driver, the officer said, was established after the police found the owner of the vehicle and interrogated him at length at the Mayur Vihar police station. The e-rickshaw owner was identified with the help of some phone numbers mentioned on his vehicle.

“The vehicle owner said he had hired his relative, a juvenile, to drive the e-rickshaw. At his instance, we apprehended the juvenile accused. While checking his antecedents, it was learnt that the juvenile was apprehended last year in a gang-rape case,” the officer added.